Graphical version

Wellcome Library

Nicholson, Max (1904-2003)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0120 GC/142

Held at: Wellcome Library

Title: Nicholson, Max (1904-2003)

Date(s): 1945-1991

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 3 boxes

Name of creator(s): Nicholson | Max | 1904-2003 | ornithologist and conservationist

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Nicholson's career was primarily in ornithology, natural conservation and questions of the relationship between development and the environment. These papers relate to his concern with issues of population. Carlos Paton Blacker and Nicholson were both founder members of the Simon Population Trust (founded 1957), but had already been in correspondence on matters relating to population and eugenics. Education at Sedbergh School, Cumbria 1920s; read history at Hertford College, Oxford; Birds In England, 1926, How Birds Live, 1927 1931 (As assistant editor of the Weekend Review) wrote supplement A National Plan For Britain; Created the British Trust for Ornithology, 1932; Songs Of Wild Birds (with gramaphone records). Produced with Ludwig Koch, 1937; helped found the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, 1938; Handbook Of British Birds (helped H F Witherby), 1938-1941; Joined the civil service heading the allocation of tonnage division at the Ministry of War Transport, 1940; In 1945 given a post in the Deputy Prime Minister's office, which led to him chairing the committee for the 1951 Festival of Britain; with Julian Huxley (the then Director General of the United Nations scientific and education organisation Unesco) involved in forming the Scientific International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) now the World Conservation Union, 1947-1948; setting up of the Nature Conservancy, 1949; contracted polio whilst leader of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation survey team in Baluchistan, 1952; Director-general of the Nature Conservancy, 1952-1966; Instrumental in setting up the Council For Nature, 1958; helped found the Conservation Corps (the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) and to develop the Wildlife Trusts Movement, 1959; with Peter Scott and others, helped create the World Wildlife Fund, 1961; convenor for conservation of the International Biological Programme, 1963-1974; wroteThe System, 1967; The Environmental Revolution, 1970; initiated what is now the Trust for Urban Ecology, 1977; The Birds of the Western Palearctic, 1977-1994; President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 1980-1985; Trustee of Earthwatch Europe, 1985-1993; created The New Renaissance Group, 1994. Also founder member and chairman of Common Ground International, Head of the world conservation section of the International Biological Programme. Had three sons: Piers, Tom (by first wife Mary Crawford) and David (by second wife Toni).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Max Nicholson, 1945-1991, including leaflets, correspondence, published and unpublished papers, and reports, on population issues, including Simon Population Trust, and correspondence with Dr C P Blacker.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Arranged by sections as follows: GC/142/1-4, 23-24 E M Nicholson items GC/142/5-8, 25 Simon Population Trust GC/142/9-10, 26 Population Statistics and Trends GC/142/11-20, 27 Other bodies concerned with population GC/21-22, 28-29 Miscellaneous papers relating to population questions GC/142/30-32 Related issues Appendix: Detailed list of GC/142/2: Correspondence between EMNand CP Blacker, 1948-1972.

Conditions governing access:

Open. The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Physical characteristics:

Paper

Finding aids:

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The first accession (Acc 432), correspondence between Nicholson and CP Blacker (1895-1975) of the Eugenics Society, was given to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre (now the Wellcome Library Archives and Manuscripts Department) in August 1992 by Mr Nicholson. Additional material (Acc 462), mainly generated by Nicholson's connection with the Simon Population Trust, was received from him in January 1993, and an additional group of miscellaneous material (Acc 698) in March 1997. The CMAC was in contact with David Hubback, Secretary of the Simon Population Trust, in 1989 about their archives but it is not clear, following his unexpected death in 1991, whether many of these now survive.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

Additional material on Blacker and the Simon Population Trust may be found in the Eugenics Society archives (SA/EUG) and among the papers of CP Blacker (PP/CPB). Sources Leaflet no. 8 'Birth Control' lists further collections containing material of interest concerning population questions.

Related material held elsewhere: Royal Geographical Society Ornithological papers relating to British Giuana expeditions, 1929-1987 Reference : AR 13U Papers relating to various expeditions, 1928-1963 Linnean Society of London Correspondence and files relating to World Wildlife Fund, 1960-1993 Aberdeen University, Special Libraries and Archives Papers relating to International Biological Programme, 1961-1977 Rice University: Woodson Research Center Correspondence (90 items) with Sir Julian Huxley, 1927-1971 Reference : Julian S Huxley papers University of East Anglia Library Correspondence (59 items) with JC Pritchard, c1931-1880 Reference : PP/4/1/16 Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives Correspondence with Sir Peter Markham Scott, 1948-1990.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Barbara Ball from the Wellcome Library online catalogue.

Rules or conventions: In compliance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description - 2nd Edition (1999); UNESCO Thesaurus, December 2001; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: February 2009


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Population

Personal names
Blacker | Carlos Paton | 1895-1975 | psychiatrist
Nicholson | Max | 1904-2003 | ornithologist and conservationist

Corporate names
Simon Population Trust

Places